Noninvasive, nuclear imaging techniques can be used to obtain basic and diagnostic information about the physiology and biochemistry of a variety of living subjects including experimental animals, normal humans and patients. These techniques rely on the use of sophisticated imaging instrumentation which is capable of detecting radiation emitted from radiotracers administered to such living subjects. The information obtained can be reconstructed to provide planar and tomographic images which reveal distribution of the radiotracer as a function of time. Use of appropriately designed radiotracers can result in images which contain information on the structure, function and most importantly, the physiology and biochemistry of the subject. Much of this information cannot be obtained by other means. The radiotracers used in these studies are designed to have defined behaviors in vivo which permit the determination of specific information concerning the physiology or biochemistry of the the subject or the effects that various diseases or drugs have on the physiology or biochemistry of the subject. Currently, radiotracers are available for obtaining useful information concerning such things as cardiac function, myocardial blood flow, lung perfusion, liver function, brain blood flow, regional brain glucose and oxygen metabolism.
Compounds can be labeled with either positron or gamma emitting radionuclides. For imaging, the most commonly used positron emitting (PET) radionuclides are 11C, 18F, 15O and 13N, all of which are accelerator produced, and have half lifes of 20, 110, 2 and 10 min. respectively. Since the half-lives of these radionuclides are so short, it is only feasible to use them at institutions which have an accelerator on site for their production, thus limiting their use. Several gamma emitting radiotracers are available which can be used by essentially any hospital in the U.S. and in most hospitals worldwide. The most widely used of these are 18F, 99mTc, 201Tl and 123I.
In the past decade, one of the most active areas of nuclear medicine research has been the development of receptor imaging radiotracers. These tracers bind with high affinity and specificity to selective hormone receptors and neuroreceptors. The neuropeptide receptors for substance P (neurokinin-1; NK-1) are widely distributed throughout the mammalian nervous system (especially brain and spinal ganglia), the circulatory system and peripheral tissues (especially the duodenum and jejunum) and are involved in regulating a number of diverse biological processes. Substance P (also called “SP” herein) is a naturally occurring undecapeptide belonging to the tachykinin family of peptides, the latter being so-named because of their prompt contractile action on extravascular smooth muscle tissue. In addition to SP the known mammalian tachykinins include neurokinin A and neurokinin B. The current nonmenclature designates the receptors for SP, neurokinin A, and neurokinin B as NK-1, NK-2, and NK-3, respectively. Neurokinin-1 (NK-1; substance P) receptor antagonists are being developed for the treatment of a number of physiological disorders associated with an excess or imbalance of tachykinins, and in particular substance P. Substance P has been implicated in gastrointestinal (GI) disorders and diseases of the GI tract, such as emesis, and in psychiatric disorders, such as depression. The compound [2-fluoromethoxy-5-(5-trifluoromethyl-tetrazol-1-yl)-benzyl]-([2S,3S]-2-phenyl-piperidin-3-yl)-amine is disclosed in PCT Patent Publication WO 96/21661 as a tachykinin antagonist. U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,964 discloses the compound [18F][2-fluoromethoxy-5-(5-trifluoromethyl-tetrazol-1-yl)-benzyl]-([2S,3S]-2-phenyl-piperidin-3-yl)-amine.
PET (Positron Emission Tomography) radiotracers and imaging technology may provide a powerful method for clinical evaluation and dose selection of neurokinin-1 receptor antagonists. Using a fluorine-18 or carbon-11 labeled radiotracer that provides a neurokinin-1 receptor-specific image in the brain and other tissues, the dose required to saturate neurokinin-1 receptors can be determined by the blockade of the PET radiotracer image in humans. The rationale for this approach is as follows: efficacy of a neurokinin-1 receptor antagonist is a consequence of the extent of receptor inhibition, which in turn is a function of the degree of drug-receptor occupancy.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to develop radiolabeled neurokinin-1 receptor antagonists that would be useful not only in traditional exploratory and diagnostic imaging applications, but would also be useful in assays, both in vitro and in vivo, for labeling the neurokinin-1 receptor and for competing with unlabeled neurokinin-1 receptor antagonists and agonists. It is a further object of this invention to develop novel assays which comprise such radiolabeled compounds.